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They Came Home: Korean War POWs Tell Their Stories
by Pat McGrath Avery
Stores of the Korean Conflict as told by those who lived it.
In They Came Home, Pat Avery, a passionate writer who believes that ‘Support Our Troops' isn't just a car magnet shaped like a ribbon, set about recording the stories of those who went to war in our name. Her goal was to ensure that we remember their sacrifices and take care of our living veterans in a manner appropriate to their service. Whether or not any of us agree with the reasons for war, it is our duty, she posits, to know about what happened.
In particular, the Korean War seems to have receded from our consciousness since M.A.S.H. left the airwaves. Overshadowed by the massiveness of the World War II experience and the trauma of Vietnam, Americans seem to have forgotten that Americans also fought and died Korea. Pat Avery provides the reader with a quick background of the conflict but her book focuses on the fortunes of three Korean War POWs.
Billy Joe Harris joined the army for a year in 1949 never realizing that the Korean War would extend his military obligation, and that he would end up a prisoner of North Korea. Pat Avery tells his tale of horror and suffering with a sense of sadness and outrage. She then describes the experiences of another POW named Ed Slater, who was one of the few survivors of the Sunchon Tunnel Massacre. She concludes with the story of Carey Weinel who served in both World War II and the Korean Conflict. Wounded and captured in late August 1950 fighting to protect the Pusan perimeter, Weinel was the sole survivor of the Taejon Massacre, in which sixty American prisoners were shot along with thousands of South Korean civilians.
Although tales of such barbarity are hard to read, I recommend this book to those who were there, those who waited at home, and to those who weren't born yet. It's an extraordinary piece of drama -- and history that ought not be forgotten.
Title: They Came Home: Korean War POWs Tell Their Stories
Author: Pat McGrath Avery
Publisher: Branson Creek Press
ISBN: 0974375861
Review written by: Joyce Faulkner
Reviewer's Rating:8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
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